"That is happiness; to be disolved into something complete and great. When it comes to one, it comes as naturally as sleep." - Willa Cather

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Monday, 1 April 2013

Påske, Colorado & Fyr til Fyr

There must be a connection between the extreme amount of holiday time that Danes get and their reported high level of happiness. Denmark is historically a Protestant country, but today there are actually very few practicing Christians here; this was a surprise to me coming from such a strongly Christian country.

Nonetheless Easter is celebrated here with 5 days off for just about everyone.
This has meant time for playing with the family, planning our move to Colorado and training.
In terms of training, I am already tapering for Fyr til Fyr (Lighthouse to Lighthouse) 60km along the coast of Bornholm next weekend. So the focus of the past week has been on some speed and not on distance (glad I have a coach who can make this decision for me). I should also point out that I am no longer cycling as that now seems to have been the source of the problems in my right leg and hip. I guess cycling so much on a bike that was slightly too big for me had its consequences.

Here is where I need the help of you readers. SR and I are planning on a temporary move to Colorado while we apply for future residency/fellowship spots and I finish writing for my PhD. We are looking for a short term rental- and right now we're deciding between Fort Collins, Boulder, Loveland, Woodland Park and Crystal Lakes. The latter is a secluded community in the mountains with very reasonably priced cabins and hundreds of miles of running and cycling trails. (I just learned about). Do any of you have thoughts on where we should make our temporary home?

It wouldn't be too terrible to live here in Crystal Lakes (from imgur.com)

It should be noted that we are still looking to buy a place (let's call it the Hard Rock Chalet) with Alicia and Divesh where we can rent out to friends wanting an adventurous mountain vacation. We'll have guided trail runs, bike rides, etc. This is going to take a while to get up and running, though - so be patient!

Running with Sunglasses

Doing the Ultra-Eye Study had an unexpected benefit for me. After reading so many peoples' experiences, I started doing all of my running with sunglasses. I had previously had this perpetual rash around my eyes and irritated conjunctiva. My patients and colleagues (in the Ophthalmology Dept, of course) nearly daily asked me "What's wrong with your eyes?" Anyway, it is now very clear it was environmental irritation while running that was causing it. If you suffer from similar problems, you might want to give sunglasses or non-tinted glasses a try.

Steve, The only thing that was ostensibly creepy was that you knew her name was Ulrikke. But then I realized you looked at the picture properties and saw the title (am I right?). I think she's a cutie, too.

Hi T-- not a nitpick at all! That is so funny that photo came up when I searched Crystal Lakes, Colorado. But you are exactly right. I can now see that there is a Crystal Lake colorado that is ALSO beautiful. It is actually hard to find real pictures of Crystal LakeS. Lots of ways to get confused. It is not going to be easy to pick a spot without going there, I can see!

If you live in Ft Collins or Loveland you will have to drive in order to get to a trailhead/mountains. (I live in Denver and have this problem.) If you're in downtown Boulder you could access Chautauqua Park and mountain trails beyond on foot. Downtown Ft Collins and downtown Boulder are both pleasant with good restaurants, etc.; not sure about Loveland, it looks like a gross American suburb on Google image search.

I don't know anything about the two other places you mentioned. If it's a temporary home and you don't need to live in a certain city for work, I say go for the remote mountain spot with trails at your back door.

Also not sure how long you would stay in this temp home...but if it's for many months you might also want to consider the snow, which can be considerable in the mountains and will limit fast running, you might need a 4x4 car, etc.

When you were in LaCrosse, it sounded like you really liked being able to walk and bike to the natural foods store, YMCA, child care, trails, and other places. I would suggest you look for a place where you can do that.

You definitely had a full-packed schedule last April. But in all the things you needed to do, I'm amaze how you managed to keep your training record. Regarding your move to Colorado, I know this will help, www.CondosInsteamBoat.com. It has a fabulous list of condos in Colorado where you can stay.

Hello from Rude Skov

Photo by Stine Sophie Winckel

...

My name is Tracy. I am a physician scientist from the USA, living with my husband and two young boys in Denmark. I work as a post-doc fellow at Næstved Hospital. I have a scientific interest in vision loss, vision loss during exercise, exercise, running during pregnancy, MAF training as well as nutrition and health for athletes. I also have a love for music, physics, statistics, cycling, yoga, cross-country skiing, bla bla bal.

I was a member of Team USA at the IAU World Championships in Ultra Trail Running in 2013 in Wales. I am now training to run with Team Denmark at the IAU World Championships in Annency, France in May 2015.